_Ami de table
Est variable._
The friend of the table
Is very variable.
The composers of these short proverbs were a numerous race of poets,
who, probably, among the dreams of their immortality never suspected
that they were to descend to posterity, themselves and their works
unknown, while their extempore thoughts would be repeated by their own
nation.
Proverbs were at length consigned to the people, when books were
addressed to scholars; but the people did not find themselves so
destitute of practical wisdom, by preserving their national proverbs, as
some of those closet students who had ceased to repeat them. The various
humours of mankind, in the mutability of human affairs, had given birth
to every species; and men were wise, or merry, or satirical, and mourned
or rejoiced in proverbs. Nations held an universal intercourse of
proverbs, from the eastern to the western world; for we discover among
those which appear strictly national, many which are common to them all.
Of our own familiar ones several may be tracked among the snows of the
Latins and the Greeks, and have sometimes been drawn from "The Mines of
the East:" like decayed families which remain in obscurity, they may
boast of a high lineal descent whenever they recover their lost
title-deeds. The vulgar proverb, "To carry coals to Newcastle," local
and idiomatic as it appears, however, has been borrowed and applied by
ourselves; it may be found among the Persians: in the "Bustan" of Sadi
we have _Infers piper in Hindostan_; "To carry pepper to Hindostan;"
among the Hebrews, "To carry oil to the City of Olives;" a similar
proverb occurs in Greek; and in Galland's "Maxims of the East" we may
discover how many of the most common proverbs among us, as well as some
of Joe Miller's jests, are of oriental origin.
The resemblance of certain proverbs in different nations, must, however,
be often ascribed to the identity of human nature; similar situations
and similar objects have unquestionably made men think and act and
express themselves alike. All nations are parallels of each other! Hence
all paroemiographers, or collectors of proverbs, complain of the
difficulty of separating their own national proverbs from those which
have crept into the language from others, particularly when nations have
held much intercourse together. We have a copious collection of Scottish
proverbs by Kelly, but this learned man was mortified at discovering
that many which he had long believed to have been genuine Scottish, were
not only English, but French, Italian, Spanish, Latin, and Greek ones;
many of his Scottish proverbs are almost literally expressed among the
fragments of remote antiquity. It would have surprised him further had
he been aware that his Greek originals were themselves but copies, and
might have been found in D'Herbelot, Erpenius, and Golius, and in many
Asiatic works, which have been more recently introduced to the enlarged
knowledge of the European student, who formerly found his most extended
researches limited by Hellenistic lore.
Perhaps it was owing to an accidental circumstance that the proverbs of
the European nations have been preserved in the permanent form of
volumes. Erasmus is usually considered as the first modern collector,
but he appears to have been preceded by Polydore Vergil, who bitterly
reproaches Erasmus with envy and plagiarism, for passing by his
collection without even a poor compliment for the inventor! Polydore was
a vain, superficial writer, who prided himself in leading the way on
more topics than the present. Erasmus, with his usual pleasantry,
provokingly excuses himself, by acknowledging that he had forgotten his
friend's book! Few sympathise with the quarrels of authors; and since
Erasmus has written a far better book than Polydore Vergil's, the
original "_Adagia_" is left only to be commemorated in literary history
as one of its curiosities.[39]
The "Adagia" of Erasmus contains a collection of about five thousand
proverbs, gradually gathered from a constant study of the ancients.
Erasmus, blest with the genius which could enliven a folio, delighted
himself and all Europe by the continued accessions he made to a volume
which even now may be the companion of literary men for a winter day's
fireside. The successful example of Erasmus commanded the imitation of
the learned in Europe, and drew their attention to their own national
proverbs. Some of the most learned men, and some not sufficiently so,
were now occupied in this new study.
In Spain, Fernandez Nunes, a Greek professor, and the Marquis of
Santellana, a grandee, published collections of their _Refranes_, or
Proverbs, a term derived A REFERENDO, because it is often repeated. The
"Refranes o Proverbios Castellanos," par Caesar Oudin, 1624, translated
into French, is a valuable compilation. In Cervantes and Quevedo, the
best practical illustrators, they are sown with no sparing hand. There is
an ample collection of Italian proverbs, by Florio, who was an
Englishman, of Italian origin, and who published "Il Giardino di
Ricreatione" at London, so early as in 1591, exceeding six thousand
proverbs; but they are unexplained, and are often obscure. Another
Italian in England, Torriano, in 1649, published an interesting
collection in the diminutive form of a twenty-fours. It was subsequent to
these publications in England, that in Italy, Angelus Monozini, in 1604,
published his collection; and Julius Varini, in 1642, produced his
_Scuola del Vulgo_. In France, Oudin, after others had preceded him,
published a collection of French proverbs, under the title of _Curiosites
Francoises_. Fleury de Bellingen's _Explication de Proverbes Francois_,
on comparing it with _Les Illustres Proverbes Historiques_, a subsequent
publication, I discovered to be the same work. It is the first attempt to
render the study of proverbs somewhat amusing. The plan consists of a
dialogue between a philosopher and a Sancho Panca, who blurts out his
proverbs with more delight than understanding. The philosopher takes
that opportunity of explaining them by the events in which they
originated, which, however, are not always to be depended on. A work of
high merit on French proverbs is the unfinished one of the Abbe Tuet,
sensible and learned. A collection of Danish proverbs, accompanied by a
French translation, was printed at Copenhagen, in a quarto volume, 1761.
England may boast of no inferior paroemiographers. The grave and
judicious Camden, the religious Herbert, the entertaining Howell, the
facetious Fuller, and the laborious Ray, with others, have preserved our
national sayings. The Scottish have been largely collected and explained
by the learned Kelly. An excellent anonymous collection, not uncommon, in
various languages, 1707; the collector and translator was Dr. J.
Mapletoft. It must be acknowledged, that although no nation exceeds our
own in sterling sense, we rarely rival the delicacy, the wit, and the
felicity of expression of the Spanish and the Italian, and the poignancy
of some of the French proverbs.
The interest we may derive from the study of proverbs is not confined to
their universal truths, nor to their poignant pleasantry; a
philosophical mind will discover in proverbs a great variety of the most
curious knowledge. The manners of a people are painted after life in
their domestic proverbs; and it would not be advancing too much to
assert, that the genius of the age might be often detected in its
prevalent ones. The learned Selden tells us, that the proverbs of
several nations were much studied by Bishop Andrews: the reason assigned
was, because "by them he knew the minds of several nations, which," said
he, "is a brave thing, as we count him wise who knows the minds and the
insides of men, which is done by knowing what is habitual to them." Lord
Bacon condensed a wide circuit of philosophical thought, when he
observed that "the genius, wit, and spirit of a nation are discovered by
their proverbs."
Proverbs peculiarly national, while they convey to us the modes of
thinking, will consequently indicate the modes of acting among a people.
The Romans had a proverbial expression for their last stake in play,
_Rem ad triarios venisse_, "the reserve are engaged!" a proverbial
expression, from which the military habits of the people might be
inferred; the _triarii_ being their reserve. A proverb has preserved a
curious custom of ancient coxcombry, which originally came from the
Greeks. To men of effeminate manners in their dress, they applied the
proverb of _Unico digitulo scalpit caput_. Scratching the head with a
single finger was, it seems, done by the critically nice youths in Rome,
that they might not discompose the economy of their hair. The Arab,
whose unsettled existence makes him miserable and interested, says,
"Vinegar given is better than honey bought." Everything of high esteem
with him who is so often parched in the desert is described as
_milk_--"How large his flow of milk!" is a proverbial expression with
the Arab to distinguish the most copious eloquence. To express a state
of perfect repose, the Arabian proverb is, "I throw the rein over my
back;" an allusion to the loosening of the cords of the camels, which
are thrown over their backs when they are sent to pasture. We discover
the rustic manners of our ancient Britons in the Cambrian proverbs; many
relate to the _hedge_. "The cleanly Briton is seen in the _hedge_: the
horse looks not on the _hedge_ but the corn: the bad husband's _hedge_
is full of gaps." The state of an agricultural people appears in such
proverbs as "You must not count your yearlings till May-day:" and their
proverbial sentence for old age is, "An old man's end is to keep sheep?"
Turn from the vagrant Arab and the agricultural Briton to a nation
existing in a high state of artificial civilization: the Chinese
proverbs frequently allude to magnificent buildings. Affecting a more
solemn exterior than all other nations, a favourite proverb with them
is, "A grave and majestic outside is, as it were, the _palace_ of the
soul." Their notion of a government is quite architectural. They say, "A
sovereign may be compared to a _hall_; his officers to the steps that
lead to it; the people to the ground on which they stand." What should
we think of a people who had a proverb, that "He who gives blows is a
master, he who gives none is a dog?" We should instantly decide on the
mean and servile spirit of those who could repeat it; and such we find
to have been that of the Bengalese, to whom the degrading proverb
belongs, derived from the treatment they were used to receive from their
Mogul rulers, who answered the claims of their creditors by a vigorous
application of the whip! In some of the Hebrew proverbs we are struck by
the frequent allusions of that fugitive people to their own history. The
cruel oppression exercised by the ruling power, and the confidence in
their hope of change in the day of retribution, was delivered in this
Hebrew proverb--"When the tale of bricks is doubled, Moses comes!" The
fond idolatry of their devotion to their ceremonial law, and to
everything connected with their sublime Theocracy, in their magnificent
Temple, is finely expressed by this proverb--"None ever took a stone out
of the Temple, but the dust did fly into his eyes." The Hebrew proverb
that "A fast for a dream, is as fire for stubble," which it kindles,
could only have been invented by a people whose superstitions attached a
holy mystery to fasts and dreams. They imagined that a religious fast
was propitious to a religious dream; or to obtain the interpretation of
one which had troubled their imagination. Peyssonel, who long resided
among the Turks, observes that their proverbs are full of sense,
ingenuity, and elegance, the surest test of the intellectual abilities
of any nation. He said this to correct the volatile opinion of De Tott,
who, to convey an idea of their stupid pride, quotes one of their
favourite adages, of which the truth and candour are admirable; "Riches
in the Indies, wit in Europe, and pomp among the Ottomans."
The Spaniards may appeal to their proverbs to show that they were a
high-minded and independent race. A Whiggish jealousy of the monarchical
power stamped itself on this ancient one, _Va el rey hasta do peude, y
no hasta do quiere_: "The king goes as far as he is able, not as far as
he desires." It must have been at a later period, when the national
genius became more subdued, and every Spaniard dreaded to find under his
own roof a spy or an informer, that another proverb arose, _Con el rey y
la inquisicion, chiton!_ "With the king and the Inquisition, hush!" The
gravity and taciturnity of the nation have been ascribed to the effects
of this proverb. Their popular but suppressed feelings on taxation, and
on a variety of dues exacted by their clergy, were murmured in
proverbs--_Lo que no lleva Christo lleva el fisco!_ "What Christ takes
not, the exchequer carries away!" They have a number of sarcastic
proverbs on the tenacious gripe of the "abad avariento," the avaricious
priest, who, "having eaten the olio offered, claims the dish!" A
striking mixture of chivalric habits, domestic decency, and epicurean
comfort, appears in the Spanish proverb, _La muger y la salsa a la mano
de la lanca_: "The wife and the sauce by the hand of the lance;" to
honour the dame, and to have the sauce near.
The Italian proverbs have taken a tinge from their deep and politic
genius, and their wisdom seems wholly concentrated in their personal
interests. I think every tenth proverb, in an Italian collection, is
some cynical or some selfish maxim: a book of the world for worldlings!
The Venetian proverb, _Pria Veneziana, poi Christiane_: "First Venetian,
and then Christian!" condenses the whole spirit of their ancient
Republic into the smallest space possible. Their political proverbs no
doubt arose from the extraordinary state of a people sometimes
distracted among republics, and sometimes servile in petty courts. The
Italian says, _I popoli s'ammazzano, ed i principi s'abbracciano_: "The
people murder one another, and princes embrace one another." _Chi
prattica co' grandi, l'ultimo a tavola, e'l primo a strapazzi_: "Who
dangles after the great is the last at table, and the first at blows."
_Chi non sa adulare, non sa regnare_: "Who knows not to flatter, knows
not to reign." _Chi serve in corte muore sul' pagliato_: "Who serves at
court, dies on straw." Wary cunning in domestic life is perpetually
impressed. An Italian proverb, which is immortalised in our language,
for it enters into the history of Milton, was that by which the elegant
Wotton counselled the young poetic traveller to have--_Il viso sciolto,
ed i pensieri stretti_, "An open countenance, but close thoughts." In
the same spirit, _Chi parla semina, chi tace raccoglie_: "The talker
sows, the silent reaps;" as well as, _Fatti di miele, e ti mangieran le
mosche_: "Make yourself all honey, and the flies will devour you." There
are some which display a deep knowledge of human nature: _A Lucca ti
vidi, a Pisa ti connobbi!_ "I saw you at Lucca, I knew you at Pisa!"
_Guardati d'aceto di vin dolce_: "Beware of vinegar made of sweet wine;"
provoke not the rage of a patient man!
Among a people who had often witnessed their fine country devastated by
petty warfare, their notion of the military character was not usually
heroic. _Il soldato per far male e ben pagato_: "The soldier is well
paid for doing mischief." _Soldato, acqua, e fuoco, presto si fan
luoco_: "A soldier, fire, and water soon make room for themselves." But
in a poetical people, endowed with great sensibility, their proverbs
would sometimes be tender and fanciful. They paint the activity of
friendship, _Chi ha l'amor nel petto, ha lo sprone a i fianchi_: "Who
feels love in the breast, feels a spur in his limbs:" or its generous
passion, _Gli amici legono la borsa con un filo di ragnatelo_: "Friends
tie their purse with a cobweb's thread." They characterised the
universal lover by an elegant proverb--_Appicare il Maio ad ogn' uscio_:
"To hang every door with May;" alluding to the bough which in the
nights of May the country people are accustomed to plant before the door
of their mistress. If we turn to the French, we discover that the
military genius of France dictated the proverb _Maille a maille se fait
le haubergeon_: "Link by link is made the coat of mail;" and, _Tel coup
de langue est pire qu'un coup de lance_; "The tongue strikes deeper than
the lance;" and _Ce qui vient du tambour s'en retourne a la flute_;
"What comes by the tabor goes back with the pipe." _Point d'argent point
de Suisse_ has become proverbial, observes an Edinburgh Reviewer; a
striking expression, which, while French or Austrian gold predominated,
was justly used to characterise the illiberal and selfish policy of the
cantonal and federal governments of Switzerland, when it began to
degenerate from its moral patriotism. The ancient, perhaps the extinct,
spirit of Englishmen was once expressed by our proverb, "Better be the
head of a dog than the tail of a lion;" _i.e._, the first of the
yeomanry rather than the last of the gentry. A foreign philosopher might
have discovered our own ancient skill in archery among our proverbs; for
none but true toxophilites could have had such a proverb as, "I will
either make a shaft or a bolt of it!" signifying, says the author of
_Ivanhoe_, a determination to make one use or other of the thing spoken
of: the bolt was the arrow peculiarly fitted to the cross-bow, as that
of the long-bow was called a shaft. These instances sufficiently
demonstrate that the characteristic circumstances and feelings of a
people are discovered in their popular notions, and stamped on their
familiar proverbs.
It is also evident that the peculiar, and often idiomatic, humour of a
people is best preserved in their proverbs. There is a shrewdness,
although deficient in delicacy, in the Scottish proverbs; they are
idiomatic, facetious, and strike home. Kelly, who has collected three
thousand, informs us, that, in 1725, the Scotch were a great proverbial
nation; for that few among the better sort will converse any
considerable time, but will confirm every assertion and observation with
a Scottish proverb. The speculative Scotch of our own times have
probably degenerated in prudential lore, and deem themselves much wiser
than their proverbs. They may reply by a Scotch proverb on proverbs,
made by a great man in Scotland, who, having given a splendid
entertainment, was harshly told, that "Fools make feasts, and wise men
eat them;" but he readily answered, "Wise men make proverbs, and fools
repeat them!"
National humour, frequently local and idiomatical, depends on the
artificial habits of mankind, so opposite to each other; but there is a
natural vein, which the populace, always true to nature, preserve, even
among the gravest people. The Arabian proverb, "The barber learns his
art on the orphan's face;" the Chinese, "In a field of melons do not
pull up your shoe; under a plum-tree do not adjust your cap;"--to
impress caution in our conduct under circumstances of suspicion;--and
the Hebrew one, "He that hath had one of his family hanged may not say
to his neighbour, _hang_ up this fish!" are all instances of this sort
of humour. The Spaniards are a grave people, but no nation has equalled
them in their peculiar humour. The genius of Cervantes partook largely
of that of his country; that mantle of gravity, which almost conceals
its latent facetiousness, and with which he has imbued his style and
manner with such untranslatable idiomatic raciness, may be traced to the
proverbial erudition of his nation. "To steal a sheep, and give away the
trotters for God's sake!" is Cervantic nature! To one who is seeking an
opportunity to quarrel with another, their proverb runs, _Si quieres dar
palos a sur muger pidele al sol a bever_, "Hast thou a mind to quarrel
with thy wife, bid her bring water to thee in the sunshine!"--a very
fair quarrel may be picked up about the motes in the clearest water! On
the judges in Gallicia, who, like our former justices of peace, "for
half a dozen chickens would dispense with a dozen of penal statutes," _A
juezes Gallicianos, con los pies en las manos_: "To the judges of
Gallicia go with feet in hand;" a droll allusion to a present of
poultry, usually held by the legs. To describe persons who live high
without visible means, _Los que cabritos venden, y cabras no tienen, de
donde los vienen?_ "They that sell kids, and have no goats, how came
they by them?" _El vino no trae bragas_, "Wine wears no breeches;" for
men in wine expose their most secret thoughts. _Vino di un oreja_, "Wine
of one ear!" is good wine; for at bad, shaking our heads, both our ears
are visible; but at good the Spaniard, by a natural gesticulation
lowering on one side, shows a single ear.
Proverbs abounding in sarcastic humour, and found among every people,
are those which are pointed at rival countries. Among ourselves, hardly
has a county escaped from some popular quip; even neighbouring towns
have their sarcasms, usually pickled in some unlucky rhyme. The egotism
of man eagerly seizes on whatever serves to depreciate or to ridicule
his neighbour: nations proverb each other; counties flout counties;
obscure towns sharpen their wits on towns as obscure as themselves--the
same evil principle lurking in poor human nature, if it cannot always
assume predominance, will meanly gratify itself by insult or contempt.
They expose some prevalent folly, or allude to some disgrace which the
natives have incurred. In France, the Burgundians have a proverb, _Mieux
vaut bon repas que bel habit_; "Better a good dinner than a fine coat."
These good people are great gormandizers, but shabby dressers; they are
commonly said to have "bowels of silk and velvet;" this is, all their
silk and velvet goes for their bowels! Thus Picardy is famous for "hot
heads;" and the Norman for _son dit et son dedit_, "his saying and his
unsaying!" In Italy the numerous rival cities pelt one another with
proverbs: _Chi ha a fare con Tosco non convien esser losco_, "He who
deals with a Tuscan must not have his eyes shut." _A Venetia chi vi
nasce mal vi si pasce_, "Whom Venice breeds, she poorly feeds."
There is another source of national characteristics, frequently
producing strange or whimsical combinations; a people, from a very
natural circumstance, have drawn their proverbs from local objects, or
from allusions to peculiar customs. The influence of manners and customs
over the ideas and language of a people would form a subject of
extensive and curious research. There is a Japanese proverb, that "A fog
cannot be dispelled with a fan!" Had we not known the origin of this
proverb, it would be evident that it could only have occurred to a
people who had constantly before them fogs and fans; and the fact
appears that fogs are frequent on the coast of Japan, and that from the
age of five years both sexes of the Japanese carry fans. The Spaniards
have an odd proverb to describe those who tease and vex a person before
they do him the very benefit which they are about to confer--acting
kindly, but speaking roughly; _Mostrar primero la horca que le lugar_,
"To show the gallows before they show the town;" a circumstance alluding
to their small towns, which have a gallows placed on an eminence, so
that the gallows breaks on the eye of the traveller before he gets a
view of the town itself.
The Cheshire proverb on marriage, "Better wed over the mixon than over
the moor," that is, at home or in its vicinity; mixon alludes to the
dung, &c., in the farm-yard, while the road from Chester to London is
over the moorland in Staffordshire: this local proverb is a curious
instance of provincial pride, perhaps of wisdom, to induce the gentry of
that county to form intermarriages; to prolong their own ancient
families, and perpetuate ancient friendships between them.
In the Isle of Man a proverbial expression forcibly indicates the object
constantly occupying the minds of the inhabitants. The two Deemsters or
judges, when appointed to the chair of judgment, declare they will
render justice between man and man "as equally as the herring bone lies
between the two sides:" an image which could not have occurred to any
people unaccustomed to the herring-fishery. There is a Cornish proverb,
"Those who will not be ruled by the rudder must be ruled by the
rock"--the strands of Cornwall, so often covered with wrecks, could not
fail to impress on the imaginations of its inhabitants the two objects
from whence they drew this salutary proverb against obstinate
wrongheads.
When Scotland, in the last century, felt its allegiance to England
doubtful, and when the French sent an expedition to the Land of Cakes, a
local proverb was revived, to show the identity of interests which
affected both nations:
If Skiddaw hath a cap,
Scruffel wots full well of that.
These are two high hills, one in Scotland and one in England; so near,
that what happens to the one will not be long ere it reach the other. If
a fog lodges on the one, it is sure to rain on the other; the mutual
sympathies of the two countries were hence deduced in a copious
dissertation, by Oswald Dyke, on what was called "The Union-proverb,"
which _local proverbs_ of our country Fuller has interspersed in his
"Worthies," and Ray and Grose have collected separately.
I was amused lately by a curious financial revelation which I found in
an opposition paper, where it appears that "Ministers pretend to make
their load of taxes more portable, by shifting the burden, or altering
the pressure, without, however, diminishing the weight; according to the
Italian proverb, _Accommodare le bisaccie nella strada_, 'To fit the
load on the journey:'" it is taken from a custom of the mule-drivers,
who, placing their packages at first but awkwardly on the backs of their
poor beasts, and seeing them ready to sink, cry out, "Never mind! we
must fit them better on the road!" I was gratified to discover, by the
present and some other modern instances, that the taste for proverbs was
reviving, and that we were returning to those sober times, when the
aptitude of a simple proverb would be preferred to the verbosity of
politicians, Tories, Whigs, or Radicals!
There are domestic proverbs which originate in incidents known only to
the natives of their province. Italian literature is particularly rich
in these stores. The lively proverbial taste of that vivacious people
was transferred to their own authors; and when these allusions were
obscured by time, learned Italians, in their zeal for their national
literature, and in their national love of story-telling, have written
grave commentaries even on ludicrous, but popular tales, in which the
proverbs are said to have originated. They resemble the old facetious
_contes_, whose simplicity and humour still live in the pages of
Boccaccio, and are not forgotten in those of the Queen of Navarre.
The Italians apply a proverb to a person who while he is beaten, takes
the blows quietly:--
_Per beato ch' elle non furon pesche!_
Luckily they were not peaches!